Let tax cuts expireOn the subject of the Republicans representing the top 2 percent of income earners: The Democrats should grow a spine, call the Republicans' bluff and let the Bush-era tax cuts expire for all.

I am in an earning class that could generously be described as lower middle class, but I would much rather see the cuts expire for me as well as the wealthy than watch the Democrats make a show of how they're committed to the working class by extending the Bush tax cuts for all. Oh wait, that whole spine thing's a problem, isn't it?

ALBERT REDA Southwest Portland

Deficit commission I'm discouraged by the bigwigs' response to the report of the bipartisan deficit commission. Nancy Pelosi calls it "simply unacceptable." Tax activist Grover Norquist won't have any revenue increases, and union leaders say it tells working Americans to "drop dead." OK.

So we're all in a loaded bus sailing down the freeway with a collapsed bridge ahead in our lane. Everyone agrees that's deadly. Swerving sharply into another lane could save us; so could slamming on the brakes, provided we do so very quickly. But we also have prior agreement, it seems, that passengers absolutely cannot be jostled in any way. Too painful! Too dangerous! All seems hopeless ... but wait! There is another solution: We can all just close our eyes and wait. Yeah, that'll do it.

ROGER D. FUCHS Northeast Portland

We all need to changeSince the election the so-called "urban/rural" issue has come up. Most comments fail to note that beginning with the near extermination of the beaver, rural resources have long been harvested for urban markets. The same is true for beef, timber, gold and wheat in Oregon's early days to the present. City folks are the ones who purchase the products of the rural folks; that's hardly a divide, it's a partnership called capitalism.

What's tough for those in the wide-open spaces is that tastes and markets change. Some urbanites would rather see a coyote or wolf in the wild than eat a steak, and rural economies propped up by decades of federal largesse -- cheap grazing, cheap timber, cheap water, cheap land, cheap mining claims -- are slow to respond.

Value-added agriculture -- the wine industry, for example -- seems to thrive where there are no price supports, subsidies and other programs designed to "keep things just the way some think they were in the good old days." Portland is hardly the city it was 50, let alone 100, years ago; smaller rural communities need to exhibit the same dexterity.

Some locales will depopulate over time and return to a wilder state, which probably tells us they should never have been settled in the first place and are more valuable to the "urban market" as wilderness, habitat and open space.

LENNY ANDERSON Northeast Portland

Enduring a cruise SpamcationHaving to go for four days without a full menu on the recent Carnival ship incident is just terrible. I can think of nothing worse, especially when most folks I've seen on cruises could easily go for 40 days.

ED HAUSAFUS Eagle Creek

Scented vs. unscented Regarding "Nonbathers come clean on their choice" (Nov. 10): If the "nonbathers" really want to save the world and the environment, they should give up washing clothes, washing dishes and flushing the toilet. Then we would all be waist-deep in clean water -- but that would mean we would be bathing, so I guess that's not going to work out.

Somebody should tell these people that they're not the "pretty boy actor" who lives in Malibu.

T.R. HUNTINGTON Cannon Beach

Schools bond I will be happy to vote for the modernization of our schools with the $548 million bond measure, just as soon as Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith "modernizes" education.

I would suggest doing away with tenure, instituting pay for performance and firing bad teachers. Improving the standards for teachers will go a lot further toward improving the "learning environment" than a "technology upgrade." But to be fair, is it too much to ask that with the $548 million we improve the quality of the teachers and the buildings?

KAREN BALTER Southwest Portland

Bush's book tourGeorge Bush's worst moment as president was when someone said he didn't care about black people. It wasn't the day he watched terrorists kill 3,000 people on 9/11.

It wasn't the horrible human suffering and his disgraceful response to it after Hurricane Katrina.

It wasn't discovering that his war in Iraq -- a war that has displaced more than 1 million Iraqis, killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops, and has wounded and crippled 500,000 more -- was a mistake. For not only weren't there any weapons of mass destruction, but perhaps even more important, he went to war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and at the time had nothing to do with terrorism. It wasn't that his economic policies led to financial collapse and record deficits -- and have caused a worldwide recession we are still in.

No, his worst day was when he got his feelings hurt by something someone said about him.

CHARLIE PHILLIPS Southwest Portland

*****

Ronald Reagan is sold as a hero, despite an absentminded presidency marked by recession, federal deficits, illegal wars and corruption scandals.

How long before the debacle that was the George W. Bush presidency is sold to us as a "Profile in Courage"?

PAUL HEHN Northeast Portland

*****Too bad George W. Bush did not release his book and do endless interviews before the election. His arrogance about the war and torture of prisoners is unforgivable. Back to the same old failed policies.